2015 Kenai Central graduate Allie Ostrander will compete at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Ostrander, who just completed her freshman season at Boise State University, will compete in the 5,000 meters.
The first round will be held July 7, while the finals will be on July 10.
Ostrander, of Soldotna, had missed her freshman outdoor season due to injury, so there was a question as to whether she would compete in the trials.
But a press release from Boise State on Monday confirmed she would compete.
Ostrander, the three-time Class 4A cross-country champ and state record holder in the 1,600 and 3,200, was having a dream freshman season until injury struck.
In early March, she was competing in the 5,000 at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships when she was unable to finish due to injury.
ESPN3 reported that Ostrander had knee pain and had been out of training for two weeks.
In the fall, Ostrander had finished second at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships and also won the junior women’s race at the 31st World Mountain Running Championship in Snowdonia, North Wales, in September.
In the indoor track season, she then debuted in the 5,000 meters on a track in late January with a time of 15 minutes, 21.85 seconds, which qualified her for the Olympic trials.
Ostrander and Paige Blackburn, a 2008 Soldotna High School graduate who competes in discus, will try and gain entrance into the exclusive club of Alaskans who have competed in the Olympics in track and field. That number now is just three — Janay DeLoach in long jump, Anchorage doctor Chris Clark in marathon and Anchorage’s Don Clary in the 5,000 meters.
Blackburn tuned up for the trails by finishing second at High Performance Meet No. 4 on Sunday at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.
Blackburn’s mark was 194 feet, 4.25 inches, while Blackburn’s personal record is 200 feet, 8 inches.
Blackburn finished just .75 inches behind Liz Pokominick, who is currently ranked fifth in the country in discus.
The top three will make the Olympics.
